Improve USA: All About Aloe

Improve USA, DeSoto, TX, was established as a result of one man’s mission to help provide jobs for the people of Mexico in the early 1990s. This man was Jesse Garcia, the company’s president and COO.

Mr. Garcia, who had been doing business between the U.S. and Mexico for nearly 15 years, had a vision of creating his own enterprise. On one of his trips through Mexico he encountered a group of farmers growing aloe at the behest of the Mexican government. The problem was the group lacked marketing and promotional support. Mr. Garcia along with his brother Florentino saw the opportunity to lend a helping hand, and so they decided to establish Improve of Mexico to further their efforts.

The pieces of the business finally came together in 1995 when the Garcia Brothers and Jay Spann, CEO, officially launched Improve USA to supply aloe raw materials to the supplement, functional food, nutritional beverage and personal care industries.

Today the company operates three processing facilities in Mexico and a sales and marketing office in DeSoto, TX. At each processing facility the company employs a full staff of quality control personnel where the environment and processing of aloe are closely monitored. The company also employs certified agronomists to oversee the aloe fields to ensure that the soil is healthy and the water is clean.

A significant accomplishment for the company was when it became the first aloe grower and producer to achieve full organic certification of the fields and raw materials. And it continues to add to its certified fields every year to ensure that its customers always have the organic aloe they require.

Improve was also one of the first companies to achieve Kosher certification in an effort to advance the quality of its raw materials. It even installed a state-of-the-art condensing tower in its plant in Hidalgo, Mexico, so it could process concentrate at low temperatures to ensure that the aloe retains as much of its natural components as possible. Further, the company can also lay claim to the fact that all of its raw materials are certified by the International Aloe Science Council.

The most established market for aloe is personal care. However, more recently aloe has become somewhat of a nutraceutical superstar and Improve is riding the wave. The company has supported the International Aloe Science Council by becoming involved in clinical trials investigating the effects of the consumption of aloe, with most benefits pointing toward immune modulation by way of long chain polysaccharides.

To retain these polysaccharides, Improve has developed a proprietary process to manufacture its unique 200X powder. “First, we never filter the product and leave the natural components as a whole. Secondly, in our process we never let the product reach a temperature over 99 degrees Fahrenheit,” the company said. “This ensures that the long polysaccharide chains remain intact, as they are found in nature.”

The company claims further that a study of its Aloe Vera Gel Dehydrated Powder 200X proves that its low-heat dehydration process is successful in retaining a broad spectrum of polysaccharide chains (mannan molecules), which the company says are the hardest to preserve. “More and more people are becoming aware that sugar chains are a key ingredient to immune system modulation and everything that goes along with it. These sugar chains activate macrophages to identify non-self cells and rid them from the body,” said Mr. Spann. “I’ve heard that sometime in the next 20 years medicines will switch from protein-based medicines to sugar-based medicine.”

In other studies, aloe has been identified as a bioavailability enhancer. More specifically, a University of Scranton study, conducted by Joe Vinson, examined the effect of taking vitamins C and E along with aloe to determine if the vitamins were better absorbed in the presence of aloe, compared to taking the nutrients with water. The results showed that aloe vera enhanced the absorption of vitamins C and E and extended their bioavailability by 300%. According to Improve, the conclusion reached in that study has prompted more research into aloe and its effects on other nutrients’ absorption and bioavailability.

For the future, Mr. Spann said, “The nutraceuticals industry is growing and will continue to thrive simply because the products work and consumers are more educated and motivated when it comes to health. Aloe has always grown with the nutraceuticals industry and it will continue to become even more popular with consumers as emerging research reveals its beneficial effects on health.”—R.W.

Improve USA
215 Dalton Drive, Suite D
DeSoto, TX 75115
Telephone: 972-230-9155; 888-328-7457
Fax: 972-230-8824
E-mail: improveusa@aloewholesale.com
Website: www.aloewholesale.com